Wager Mage
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Can you make money from free bets?

Following your first or 'qualifying' real money bet, you will be awarded the free bet by the bookmaker. This is where the profit is made. Quite simply, you repeat the process: bet using the free bet and then lay the bet. Whatever the result you will be in profit (which I'll be demonstrating below).

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Now, I'm not a gambler by any means. But I have made enough money from bookmakers in just six months to pay for an £860 flight (return) to Australia using matched betting. And I've got company too after walking a good friend through this technique. The result is this guide, where I'll share the exact steps with you too. It includes screenshots and a free oddsmatcher tool.

Why should I trust this guide?

What I'm teaching you here is a completely legal, tried-and-tested method called 'matched betting'. Matched betting allows you to turn the tables on the bookmakers to extract their free bet offers. Matched betting is legal and a spokesperson for William Hill has indicated the betting industry does not have a problem with this use of free bets – Wikipedia I've used it myself for several years and have never lost any money doing it. But I have taken my time and been very careful to avoid making mistakes. Do not rush this guide. Make sure you understand it 100% before depositing any money, and please ask any questions if unsure of anything. I'll be taking you through the 'need-to-knows' then showing you how I made £17.73 in 20 minutes in a full-blown example.

What is Matched Betting?

Matched betting is a technique that mathematically generates a profit from free bet promotions offered by betting companies. Almost all bookmakers advertise these offers to entice new customers to place bets with them. For example, "bet £25 with us and we'll give you a £25 free bet!".

How does matched betting work?

Firstly, you don't need to know all the betting terminology if you follow the steps below. But it's important you know two types of bet which allow matched betting to work:

A 'back' bet

Betting for a certain outcome to come true. Eg. "I bet England will win" is a backing bet. If it comes true, you win the bet and the winnings. If England lose or draw, you lose your stake. You can place a back bet at any bookmaker, such as Paddy Power, William Hill, Betfred etc.

A 'lay' bet

Betting against a certain outcome to come true. Eg. "I bet England will not win" is a lay bet. If they lose or draw, you win the bet. You can only place a lay bet at a betting exchange such as Betfair. Matched betting works by cancelling out the risk on the 'back' bet at the online bookies by betting against yourself at the same odds (know as 'laying' a bet) at a betting exchange. In other words, you are 'matching' your bet. Following your first or 'qualifying' real money bet, you will be awarded the free bet by the bookmaker. This is where the profit is made. Quite simply, you repeat the process: bet using the free bet and then lay the bet. Whatever the result you will be in profit (which I'll be demonstrating below).

How much profit can I make?

For each matched bet, you will be left with up to 95% of the free bet amount as profit. This is because betting exchanges usually charge a commission of 5% on winnings. You may also make a very small loss on the qualifying bet due to the minor difference in odds on each website. This is normal, and you will recoup this when you use the free bet. In the steps below I'll show you how to profit from a £30 free bet using a real life example. Replicate the same steps across the hundreds of free bet offers each year, and you can quickly be looking at £1,000s. And it's worth pointing out, earnings from the gambling industry are currently tax-free.

What's the risk?

Anyone can learn how to do matched betting and, in theory, there is no risk involved because you are covering yourself by betting for and against the same event. However the risk comes when mistakes are made. So you need to double-check everything and follow the steps exactly. On rare occasions free bets do not always come through right away, so be patient and always abide by the promotion's terms. Once you've understood the process and successfully followed the steps below, you can continue matched betting at other online bookies with free bet offers (see my table at end) which can help you earn extra money. It's also worth knowing that depositing at gambling websites does not affect your credit rating.

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7 steps to matched betting profit

Note: This is literally a step-by-step, hold-your-hand kind of guide. There's lots of fragmented information out there on forums etc, which often results in costly mistakes for novices. Below I outline exactly the steps I follow, using the practical example of one free bet. So long as you follow word for word, you can't go wrong. I strongly suggest reading through all the steps first before making any bets. You'll also find using a desktop computer far easier than on mobile! Open a Betfair exchange account Betfair is a betting exchange where you can 'lay' bets to cancel out your risk at the bookmakers. Unlike traditional bookmakers, Betfair is a place where you bet against other people. They sometimes even offer free bets for new customers too (if you're lucky). Register on Betfair.com Seeing blank pages? Turn off Ad Blocking plugins when matched betting! Open a William Hill account One of the best offers right now is with William Hill who are offering £30 free bets on new sign ups when you bet just £10 (don't worry we'll be matching this too). So we'll be using this 'bookie' in this practical example. Always check the full T&Cs of receiving free bet offers. There may be some restrictions on what you can bet on or an expiry date. New customers only, min £10 stake, min odds 1/2, free bets paid as 3 x £10, free bets credited after settlement of first qualifying bet, free bets will expire 30 days after the qualifying bet is placed, payment method/player/country restrictions apply. During registration, enter the promo code R30. You will be prompted to make a deposit. Choose one of the many payment types and deposit just £10 (needed to unlock the free bet). Register on William Hill Use decimal odds Once you've logged into William Hill, change your odds display from fractions to decimal for easy comparison with Betfair. You can do this from the link in the top menu across the site. This is essential! Find and place your qualifying bet Ideally you want to find a sporting bet (I recommend football) which has the closest odds on both William Hill (the bet to back) and Betfair.com (the lay bet). Lay odds on Betfair are the red boxes, not the blue. If you cannot see any red boxes, you need to go to the exchange by clicking the top left link "Exchange". For this free bet offer, William Hill's terms state you must pick odds of 1.5 or greater. It's better to choose a bet with low odds for this step, between 1.5 and 4.0 if possible. See my example below then use the Oddsmatcher tool which does everything for you! My example I used the Oddsmatcher below which suggested a football match between Bolton and Cambridge. So I went to find this game on William Hill and Betfair (we want the "90 Minutes" market on William Hill and "Match Odds" on Betfair). Tip: Use the search functions to find a game quickly (side menu on William Hill, top menu on Betfair). I will back Bolton to win at William Hill with odds of 2.15 and lay that same bet on Betfair with odds of 2.14. In my example bet, the difference is 0.01 which the Oddsmatcher calculated as giving me a small acceptable loss of 23p on this qualifying bet. Here are my betting slips on both websites for my qualifying bet: Oddsmatcher tool (Qualifying bet) Use the Oddsmatcher tool below. This will save you a LOT of time and maximise your overall profit. It fetches live odds from William Hill and finds the equivalent lay odds on Betfair for thousands of upcoming football matches. The hardest part is also done for you, which is to calculate the best matches for your qualifying bet based on the closest possible odds and smallest loss. Feel free to switch between them and the steps and calculations will be updated (below the table). Just click the blue refresh icon to start and then follow the 4 steps. Mobile users: The widget may not work properly. Use on a desktop if possible or The widget may not work properly. Use on a desktop if possible or open widget in a new window

You need to have iFrames enabled. Try another browser.

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Get instant bonus tips & more free bets:

Claim your free bet In my Bolton v Cambridge game, Bolton won 2-1. So my profit of £11.50 ended up in William Hill. Meanwhile I lost the "Liability" amount of £11.73 on the lay bet with Betfair. The total amount between the accounts is therefore 23p, the "acceptable loss" as predicted by the Oddsmatcher. As I have placed and seen through the £10 qualifying bet, I now have a £30 free bet! I also have my £10 stake and £11.50 profit sitting in my William Hill account (£21.50). My Betfair account is down to £8.27 (my initial deposit of £20 - £11.73). The free bets of £30 will be credited to your William Hill account. Find & place a new bet We're basically going to repeat the process in step 4, but using the £30 free bet instead of the £10. The £30 free bet will usually be received as 2 x £15 or 3 x £10 free bets, so simply place them on the same event as separate bets. This time it's worth picking odds greater than 2.5 to maximise your profit. Just bear in mind that the higher they are the more you'll need to have in your Betfair account to lay it (see the "Liability" amount in the tool below). My example I used the next step of the Oddsmatcher (embedded below) which suggested a football match between PSG and Barcelona. The odds are above 2.5 and happen to be the same for both websites. You'll see below that I am backing Barcelona to win on William Hill (2.62 odds) and then I'm laying that bet (for Barcelona not to win) at Betfair (2.62 odds). On Betfair I already had £8.27 remaining from the first bet, so I deposited £25 to more than cover my calculated Liability (total £33.27). Here are my bet slips on both websites for my free bet (I placed 2 of the same bet on William Hill since they split my £30 free bet into 2 x £15 bets): The Oddsmatcher below calculated that I'll make a clear profit of £17.96, whatever happens. Nice. Oddsmatcher tool (Free bet) Just click the blue refresh icon to start and then follow the 3 steps. Once again, feel free to switch between the matches in the table and the calculations will be updated. Mobile users: The widget may not work properly. Use on a desktop if possible or The widget may not work properly. Use on a desktop if possible or open widget in a new window You need to have iFrames enabled. Try another browser. Withdraw the profit Whatever the outcome, you will now be in profit to the amount calculated in the Oddsmatcher. Now it's time to cash out! In my example of the PSG v Barcelona game, the score ended in a draw at 1-1. This means my lay bet on Betfair won (because Barcelona did not win) with a return of £18.91 (the "Lay Stake"). Meanwhile I lost the £30 free bet on William Hill (which obviously wasn't my money). After Betfair's small 5% commission on my £18.91 winnings, I'm left with £17.96. This is exactly the amount of profit calculated for me by the Oddsmatcher. My total profit from both matched bets, accounting for the 23p loss on my £10 qualifying bet, totals £17.73. I spent just under 20 minutes on the whole process, as I move onto the countless other free bets out there (best listed below). Beats stacking shelves… If you enjoyed and profited from this guide, sharing it is the best thanks you could give. And I'm sure they'll appreciate it too.

Matched betting offers

If you are confident enough with the process of matched betting and eager to make more profit, work through the free bet offers in the table below (ordered by ease). The same key steps above still apply, and I've written a mini guide for each one. All offers are 18+. Always check the full T&Cs.

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